Hoisting pointillism into the electronic age
By Henry Vermillion June 20, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Art Opening
Christian Calvillo
Sat, June 21, 6–8pm
Galería Izamal
Mesones 80

Vassily Kandinsky wrote that every artist is a child of his times. How could artists—who are almost by definition more sensitive than other people—be otherwise?

Today, magazines attract our attention with eye-catching photos, but film, television and computers bombard us with most of the images (other than those of daily life) that stick in our minds.

Christian Calvillo is a talented young painter whose work reflects our time and especially electronic media in a unique way. His new work can be seen at Galería Izamal through mid-July.

How can artists brought up on a visual diet of Gilligan’s Island and television cartoons make images that don’t reflect that kind of commercial “pop” image? Abstraction is one attempt at a solution; it aims to get at the essence of things without hackneyed images. Pure and bright color, freed from the tyranny of images in nature, is another.

Calvillo´s painting uses both abstraction and pure color while reflecting the electronic media of our time. He hasn’t abandoned painting as a medium, as some digital artists have done. His painting strokes resemble pixels, those tiny building blocks of color that make up the images on our computer screens.

The paintings burst with energy and vivid color: one sees fireworks, pinwheels and solar explosions, all painted meticulously with square bars and tiny strokes of pure color. He has hoisted Seurat’s pointillism into the electronic age.

Calvillo was born in the beautiful colonial town of Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco. In school he studied photography and law in León, where he now lives, and art in Guadalajara; the show at Galería Izamal is his first in San Miguel.

Calvillo believes that while an artist reflects the culture of his time, he also must judge it. This is the difficulty. The images from film and TV from our childhood stay with us at some primordial level.

It requires colossal and unremitting effort (or an extraordinary natural gift) to repopulate one’s imaginative landscape with images more relevant to human existence than Mickey Mouse, Power Rangers, manga comics and Godzilla. It’s not a simple matter to invest passion, sentiment and meaning into original images in our minds with the authority and seductiveness of those of Calvin Klein and Revlon, or of Marilyn Monroe or Sweeney Todd. (Was it otherwise in the past? Yes. But the “why” and the role of organized religion in art of the past is another discussion.)

Paintings by gallery members Steven Cary, Juan Ezcurdia, Javier Garcia, Marion Perlet, Henry Vermillion and Britt Zaist, and jewelry by Maria Bracho also can be seen at the gallery seven days a week, 11am–3pm and 4–8pm. The gallery is located next to Teatro Ángela Peralta.

Henry Vermillion is the director of Galería Izamal.

International iconographer to give demonstration
By Cati Demme

Icon art demonstration
Mary Jane Miller
Thu, June 26, 9–11am
Generator Gallery
Fábrica la Aurora
75 pesos

Local artist Mary Jane Miller is one of the top contemporary iconographers in the world. She has now decided to close her gallery and focus entirely on her work. Her goal now is experimenting with new styles, completing larger works and commissions. She is now represented exclusively by the Generator Gallery.

Miller is mostly self-taught, although she did study at the Museum School in Boston and here at the Instituto Allende, where she met her husband Valentino, who works the intricate pewter designs that are incorporated into many of her pieces. She also studied theology and ministry in Tennessee for four years and is extremely knowledgeable about all things spiritual, especially in the Christian context.

Her recent “Mary” collection, representations of the Mary figure in different biblical contexts, was on exhibit at the Virginia Museum Annex. These are larger pieces, many embellished with Valentino’s fine pewter work. Miller has inspired many artists and lay people with her weeklong workshops held at the Benedictine Monastery in Atotonilco.

This gives one the opportunity to not only experience firsthand the painting process in egg tempera, but also the silent, spiritual environment encountered at the monastery.

On June 26, Miller will demonstrate her art form, painting icons in the Byzantine tradition. Reservation are suggested. Coffee, pastries and fresh OJ to be served. For more information, call 154-9588 or contact generatorgallery@hotmail.com. Cati Demme is an artist and the owner/director of the Generator Gallery at Fábrica la Aurora.

Four artists featured at Rainbow
By Jan Searle

Art Opening
Sat, June 21, 6–8pm
Rainbow of Art Gallery
Ancha de San Antonio 3
(415) 110-3200

Eunice Hundley, a painter, is known for her portraits of famous people, including Pope John Paul, Texas businessmen Ross Perot and William Sessions. She is also an illustrator of several children’s books, but her real love has been the depiction of Mexican and Guatemalan vendors and children. Eunice is also a figurative, landscape and wildlife painter, and a muralist.

She has completed murals for Six Flags Fiesta Texas, nature centers and wildlife management ranches, private homes and government facilities, most recently for the Intrepid Center for Fallen Heroes, Brooke Army Medical Center. Hundley is a member of American Women Artists, Coppini Academy of Fine Art and Texas Pastel Society.

Julian Fedorak is a long-time San Miguel favorite who has been collected from Canada to New York to Europe. His paintings in oil are bold, strong, colorful—an unusual approach to contemporary architectural and floral painting. His works are large and powerful paintings that make a statement when you walk into a room.

Jorge de la Fuente does fantastic representative paintings with a touch of Dali. His imaginative and complex symbolic imagery flows from his personal vision. Enigmatic and haunting, de la Fuente’s work submerges the viewer into the mysterious depths of the subconscious. His paintings have been exhibited in Mexico, Spain and New York. He currently is completing a one-man show in Victoria, Tamaulipas, at Centro Cultural Tamaulipeco. 

Jan Searle shows her latest body of work featuring the people and the dancers of Mexico. Art West magazine stated, “Jan’s success as an artist and as a human being proceeds from her affirmation of life...and openness to new ideas, a faith in the triumph of the will over adversity, and a confidence in the process of learning from mistakes.” Her work also has been featured in Southwest Art, Designer’s West, American Artist and Art in America.